It’s clear nowadays
that things went terribly wrong. But it was the experts who made horrible calls
about monsters under our beds and it was a willing the public who became too
frighten to bend down and look. The pack
mentality of the media often produced an endless freak show of our worst fears
confirmed, a parade of the usual suspects, empty
reassurance by those in authority, solutions to all the wrong problems. Much of
what was publicized, reported, and believed simply wasn’t true. The real
sources of harm and suffering neglected.

To see how
these stories came about, The New York Times has produced a series of short
news documentaries revisiting old stories where the story started out way ahead
of the facts and the media’s hype along with thepublic’s panic, ensured the story would never
be bound by facts. It’s a remarkable series that you’ll keep wondering, “now they tell us” but also how did we get so many stories so
terribly wrong?